Pierre-Claude-Victor Boiste

Who was Pierre-Claude-Victor Boiste?

Pierre-Claude-Victor Boiste was a French lexicographer born in Paris. He is most famous as the editor of the Dictionnaire universel de la langue française, first published in 1800.

Originally trained at the Dammartin-Juilly Royal Academy at Goële, as a young man he studied law and became a practing lawyer. However, he quit legal work to pursue publishing, ultimately founding a moderately prestigious press. In 1800, his health failing him, he retired to a house in the country at Ivry-sur-Seine to devote himself to linguistic, scientific and literary pursuits, producing five works, of which his dictionary is the most famous.